DIS Season 4

This page contains information specifically pertaining to the fourth season of Star Trek: Discovery, whose episode premieres were consecutively streamed on Paramount+ in the USA and broadcast on CTV Sci-Fi Channel/Z in Canada from 18 November 2021 through 17 March 2022, becoming permanently streamed in Canada on CraveTV the next day.

Earlier advertising indicated that this season would be made available worldwide via Netflix. Less than a week prior to the original release date, it was announced that this would not be the case and that the three previous seasons would be removed from the platform. This was due to the planned extended global rollout of Paramount+ sometime during 2022. [1][2] As a consequence, season four was initially planned as a North American exclusive to begin.

On 24 November 2021, in response to widespread fan outrage, it was announced the series (including the fourth season) would be made available on Paramount+ in all foreign markets in which the service was already available on 26 November 2021, which at that particular point in time were not that many (yet) outside the Americas. For the handful of other markets which did not have Paramount+ but did have the Paramount-owned online service Pluto TV, the episodes were made available on the same timetable. Despite this, Discovery's fourth season remained unavailable for the vast majority of international markets, [3][4] and essentially became a direct-to-DVD/Blu-ray release for those territories when the Blu-ray and DVD home video formats of season four were eventually released in December 2022.

Episodes[]

Background information[]

• On 9 January 2020, Production Weekly included a fourth season in its listing of upcoming productions, although no official announcement had been made. [5][6][7][8] One of the unofficial early reports had it that production was to start in early July 2020. [9]
• On 2 March 2020 another early unofficial report had it that not only a fourth season was in the making, but also that it was to be produced back-to-back with a yet to be confirmed fifth season. [10] This turned out not to be the case, but the second season of franchise sibling Star Trek: Picard became produced back-to-back with its third season a year later.
• Discovery's fourth season became the second television production, alongside Star Trek: Strange New Worlds's first season, to be wholly produced to 4K HD 2160p resolution standards by using the new 4K+ ultra high resolution ARRI Alexa cameras. [11] However, when the home video formats of the season were up for release, a 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray one had, unlike Strange New World's, never been under consideration, presumably for reasons that had either to do with the generic trend of fast dwindling physical home video format sales, the continued skepticism with which the series was viewed by classic fandom, or both.
• On 12 August 2020 showrunner Alex Kurtzman had to concede that the COVID-19 pandemic crisis wrought havoc on the franchise production schedules, and that production for all shows were delayed, including that of Discovery's fourth season. [12]
• It was only on 16 October 2020 that the fourth season was officially announced; production began on November 2 in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. [13][14]
• In a January 2021 interview with Michelle Paradise, she stated that Gray's storyline will be followed up in season 4 and "That storyline is incredibly important to us." [15] She expanded on that in a separate interview stating "Representation matters. It matters to see a version of yourself on screen. It matters there are non-binary and transgender characters. It matters that there is a Black woman in the captain's chair. It matters that there is a gay couple on our show. We will continue to do that for the show, and the world we live in, but also, to honor the Star Trek legacy. And to be super clear, we will pay that moment off in Season 4. Gray will be seen. That promise will be paid off." [16]
• The entire production crew numbered nearly 80 crew and cast. [17]
• In the penultimate week of April 2021, production was suspended for two weeks due to suspected on-set COVID-19 exposure. The projected June production wrap was not expected to suffer adversely from the temporary shutdown. [18]
• Filming wrapped on 23 August 2021. [19]
• The premiere date was announced as 18 November 2021.
• The escalating move in the ongoing "streaming war" by globally sidelining Netflix as the international disseminator of the series just days before the fourth season premiere, constituted a surprise for many fans outside North America. Much to their chagrin and anger [20] – which was shared by Discovery's cast and crew [21] – the international Discovery fanbase was now forced to await the launch of Paramount+ in one format or another in their territories sometime in 2022. [22] This was not the case for viewers in Scandinavia, South America, and Australia, where Paramount+ had already been operational since mid-2021, and where the fourth season was expected to be sooner available for viewing after its debut in North America. [23][24]
• The gesture of making the season available on Pluto TV in those European territories without Paramount+ was only a partial fix as the service was not available in a large swath of smaller European countries including Ireland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Portugal, and the majority of the Eastern European countries.
• It appears that the November 2021 one-sided termination of the Discovery streaming rights by ViacomCBS came with financial compensation for Netflix. [25]
• Those countries without Paramount+ and/or Pluto TV were expected to be able to stream the season with the advent of a new, Paramount+ encompassing, streaming service in late 2022. However, when that service, SkyShowtime, was eventually launched in the Autumn of 2022, Discovery was not part of its inaugural library content, meaning that the elusive fourth season remained unavailable for official and legal watching in those countries where SkyShowtime was launched. This intentional omission appeared to have been a conscious decision by SkyShowtime itself, [26] arguably motivated to do so by the continued bad press (and resulting weak ratings) it received from classic fandom that kept hounding Discovery ever since it premiered in 2017. For those fans who liked the show however, the issue became moot very shortly thereafter when the fourth season Blu-ray and DVD home video formats were released in early December 2022.
• The previous point did not apply for those European countries where Paramount+ had been launched a few months earlier that year (but months after the fourth season had already premiered in North America) under its own name, most conspicuously the UK, and where Discovery was a part of the library. [27] UK fans incidentally, were able to watch the fourth season from its very start through Pluto TV, [28] [29] as that service had already been available in the country since 1 October 2018. [30]
• The premiere of season four came without an official series renewal announcement as had hitherto been customary for the Kurtzman-era Star Trek shows, [31] which included Discovery's season four which had been officially announced the day after its third season debuted.
• The renewal for a fifth season was eventually announced on 18 January 2022. [32]

Awards[]

The fourth season scored two wins out of fourteen award nominations, thereby achieving a success rate of 14%, but which also constituted a 12% decrease over the preceding season. Furthermore, the season earned the dubious distinction of becoming the very first Star Trek live-action season not to receive even a single Emmy Award nomination, and up until that point in time a distinction only shared with the second season of the animated Star Trek: Lower Decks.

Credits[]

Main cast[]

• Sonequa Martin-Green as Michael Burnham
• Doug Jones as Saru
• Anthony Rapp as Paul Stamets
• Mary Wiseman as Sylvia Tilly ("Kobayashi Maru" – "All Is Possible", "Coming Home")
• Wilson Cruz as Hugh Culber
• Blu del Barrio as Adira Tal ("Kobayashi Maru" – "All Is Possible", "Stormy Weather" – "...But to Connect", "The Galactic Barrier" – "Coming Home")

With

• Tig Notaro as Jett Reno ("The Examples", "Rosetta" – "Coming Home")

And

• David Ajala as Cleveland Booker

Recurring guest star[]

• Ian Alexander as Gray Tal

Additional cast[]

• Emily Coutts as Keyla Detmer
• David Cronenberg as Kovich
• Raven Dauda as Dr. Tracy Pollard
• Oded Fehr as Charles Vance
• Oyin Oladejo as Joann Owosekun
• Tara Rosling as T'Rina
• Ronnie Rowe Jr. as R.A. Bryce

Crew[]

Directors

• James Anthony Usas
• Maria Norris – Covid Testing Coordinator

See also[]

• DIS Season 4 performers
• DIS Season 4 Blu-ray
• DIS Season 4 DVD

External links[]

• Star Trek: Discovery season 4 at Wikipedia
• Star Trek: Discovery season 4 at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• Star Trek: Discovery season 4 at Ex Astris Scientia